DIY Old School Caramels Recipe & Tutorial

I have been really wanted to learn how to make candy. All different kinds of candy. It started before Christmas. I wanted to give homemade caramels as little treats and I wanted to make it old school style.

The Tools & Preparation

I have various thermometers but this one was so easy to use!!! I could actually set it for making caramel! Although it has preset temperatures and not the ones I wanted but still, it really helped.

Candy making often requires extremely high temperatures and sticky substances so always make sure you have some ice water nearby. Safety first!

You do not want to brush the sides of the pot with water to prevent crystalization from forming too often but have that water and brush ready. Once you start making candy, you do not want to leave the pot’s side.

The Recipe & Tutorial

FYI this recipe calls for white corn syrup, not golden corn syrup. Make sure you have the right kind!

My first batch that I photographed for this post did get a little too brown because I was so busy taking photos. I made them for friends without taking photos and paying strict attention to the temperatures and colour of the candy and they turned out perfectly. Everyone loved their chewy and soft texture and this recipe makes a lot of treats.

I know candy is out of foodie fashion these days. Everyone is so focused on vegan sugarless this and that but for me, if you are going to have a treat there is nothing more special than something made with love and attention. This is a ritual of time, attention, love and patience. I am so ecstatic I not only learned how to make old school caramel but nailed it on the second try.

We usually used wax paper when we did candy making (parchment wasn’t an available thing back then and it works fine), but if you only have foil, I’ve found it’s best to butter it instead of using spray. The liquid doesn’t apply thoroughly enough and it settles while you’re busy making the candy. I’ve even had this problem with baking pans. Smoothing the butter on allows you to also flatten the little creases out of the foil, so there’s fewer ridges to get stuck. And more butter’s never bad:-) When it’s set, you can chill the pan briefly, then turn out the entire pan upside down onto a greased (or clingfilmed) cutting board and peel the entire piece of foil off. Then cut. When we did Christmas baking, we used foil in all our pans too because we didn’t have enough pans for all the recipes. Leave enough overhang so you can just pop the whole piece out of the pan and wrap it in the foil. 🙂

Yes JC, wax paper is a good alternative! Probably cheaper too. Oh good to know about the butter, it is always better, isn’t it? Good point, thank you! Oh chilling it is smart for cutting! Thank you so much for your advice, I really appreciate it!